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| Walla Walla, WA |
"Dear Dolly, I'll thank you to send the cocoa,
And Susan, who brings it,
shall take back your boa.--
Pray, tell Doctor Bleed'em I've got a sad
cough;
I caught it while watching young Hodge at the plough;
I
thought the day fine and was simple enough
My umbrella to leave, so got
wet through and through,
For it came down in torrents; your poor aunt was
caught
In the rain and I afterwards sat in a draught.
This made me
much worse, but experience I bought,
And I'll never more trust to the
sunshine and drought!
Well, I made myself dry, and I sat down to tea:
Of
the good that it did me you'd form no idea.
But I quite hate the country,
the weather's so rough,
So you'll see me, dear, soon in your little
borough.
I hope, after all, that my cold will be trivial--
But still
you may send me that stuff in the vial--
In the kitchen you'll find it,
just over the trough.
Oh, my cough! oh, my cough! it all comes of the
plough."
from The Comic Almanack, An Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, containing Merry Tales, Humorous Poetry, Quips, and Oddities. First Series, 1835-1843
Texts
Recorded
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| Walla Walla, WA |
Gradus 146 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [October 20, 2008]
this music is a straight As music
ranking on a scale of merit
in
order to make decisions
about the disposition of individuals
but
my internal ranking of individuals
is personal to my use
and
so
could hardly
as a raw data point
have any force
outside my own head
without further clarification
either
to persuade
or
to co-ponder
one playing specific notes
to be one doing such a thing
allowing
the urge
to be one doing such a thing
to allow one
to do
such a thing
the fruits of the urge
are there to hear
but what was the urge
about?
does the urge
have a voice
that thinks aloud
in
its head?
the mind's ear
and the ear mind
and the differences between
them
the ear mind
is the process of hearing
the minds' ear
is
thought
as though it was heard
by ear mind
urges want satisfaction
how compromised
is the urge
to be
one
playing specific notes?
Tom Selleck Has a Bad Day - Swingset Showdown [from Cymbal of Appreciation]
clever sophomoric humor
relies on the sympathy
of its sophomoric
audience
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| Columbia River, from Maryhill Museum of Art |
Gradus at the Chapel (Rung 1) - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, July 14, 2018]
my dad had passed away the week before
and I was unable to attend this
performance
Steve Scribner was kind enough to forward the recording he
had made
when a note is firmly struck
and held while the dampers are cycled on
and off
the sound appears to fluctuate in amplitude
or
to
decrease amplitude unevenly
across the note's decay
we might say
this fluctuation
is of its envelope
but
it is also
a blossoming/withering pulsation
of its resonating parts
within that envelope
of course
the envelope doesn't exist
as part of the sound
being an abstraction
conceptual in
nature
What Did I Do Wrong - William Bell [from Written in Their Soul, The Stax Songwriter Demos]
song pleading for its future
Madrigals, Book VIII: Ardo e scoprir, ahi lasso, io non ardisco - Claudio Monteverdi - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
a choir is a multiheaded monster
a theatrical composition
of
patterns
of
which heads are singing
and when
and with
which others
Praeludium in F-sharp minor, BuxWV 146 - Dieterich Buxtehude - Simone Stella
the procession of dignities
this part promises a fiery sermon
was
ever final consonance so hardly won?
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
Es reißet euch ein schreklich Ende, BWV 90 - Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Ton Koopman
can't emphasize it
nor repeat it enough
we are being given a
talking to
followed by words of some comfort
theological statements
in the form of a dialog between musics
Sonata in D minor, Kk. 294 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder
so thorough
each item dispatched
and checked off
nothing
left off its proper schedule
Novelletten: leicht und mit Humor, Op. 21 #3 - Robert Schumann - Éric Le Sage
clearly balanced phrases
balanced
by storms and zephyrs
Consolations: Lento, S.171 #3 - Franz Liszt - Beatrice Berrut
the right words
at the right times
the right tenderness
delicate magic
Prelude in G Major, Op. 39 #3 - Alexander Scriabin - Dmitri Alexeev
I'll take his word for it
that it wandered into G
by the end
Somebody's Wrong - Boyd Senter [from That Devilin' Tune]
hat and cane and shoes
that shuffle and twirl and tap
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
St. Louis Blues - Art Tatum [from Piano Starts Here]
catches up with the tune in mid slide
Sonatas and Interludes: Sonata XVI - John Cage - Boris Berman
figures in costumes and masks
coy about cadence
My Baby Just Cares for Me - Nina Simone [from Little Girl Blue]
song
as carrier
of persona/charisma projection
Get Happy - Stevie Wonder [from with a Song In My Heart]
rhinestone gospel
Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo - Louis Armstrong [from Disney Songs the Satchmo Way]
every time he gets to a bibbidi-bobbidis
he has rethunked it
Let's Spend the Night Together - David Bowie [from Aladdin Sane]
hyper press tempo
rushes into now
Godspeed - The Patti Smith Group [from Easter]
is the text of words
speaking to the same person
as the affect of
the music?
is it necessary
that
it be
if
it is
in this case?
Improvisation 2 - Keith Eisenbrey, Anne McLellan [October 2, 1983]
a flash fiction by Kafka
with string bass plunks
Thank You Girl - The Beatles [from Past Masters 1]
this album came out some 25 years after the song
at a time when their
sound
was sounding increasingly dated
not just because of what
they're playing
but
in how they were recorded
Sonata in D minor, Op. 108 - Johannes Brahms - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]
Brahms's sequiturs don't non
they pivot
follows the snake
through slithery passages
shiftings of figures
as they phase with the meter
leave us
uncertain of our ground
these figures are easily distracted
by their own knottiness
True Love is Not Nice - Jonathan Richman [from I'm So Confused]
the particular music of Jonathan
is not well served by production value
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
a bit of ape bonding
abrasive G show
to get Gradus started
with some low humor
and lowly notes
glottal fricatives
in the tempo of a sleeping dragon
it helps
when thinking about compositonal forming
to have heard
many hours of nothing but A naturals
whom or what it helps
is open for discussion
episodes of relations
among notes
a fantasia
Love Game - Lady Gaga [from The Fame]
the trick is to seem to be in command if it all
a rhythm of dancing
words
somewhat salacious
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
notes sulking in corners
when we hear a note
we want to hear
we turn toward it
a bodily attitude
and attend to it
a
mental attitude
we turn our attention
to it
cats' ears and dogs' sniffers
there is now
I understand
quite a bit of coin tossing involved
in the populating of each rung
that's the part of the project
I'm not involved with
and have never witnessed
The Lost - Steve Layton [from The Month of Endings]
immersive cover art is the show
Sinfonia 5 (piano) - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [August 31, 2023]
two lines enacting their separate paths
in the same narrow pitch-field
River of Jordan - Carter Family [from Goodbye, Babylon]
pronounced
Jerden
heav'nly quaar
(gonna sing in it)
Blues Waltz - Ray Charles [from Ray Charles at Newport]
strut display among the horns
Bird in Air - Johannes Brahms - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, Joanne Deacon [recorded April 16, 1963]
perhaps too many singers for this
Punky's Dilemma - Simon & Garfunkel [from Bookends]
an amusement
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
Johnny Raven - Michael Jackson [from Music & Me]
the reinvention bandwagon
clutching mass relevance within the industry
There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of) (alternate mix) - Sun Ra [from Languidity]
science fiction
outer space
out there in general
the future
we inhabit now
by inventing it
all of it
has a flavor
profile
within our cultural imaginations
we recognize it instantly
by its spaciness
we don't know
where we're headed
but
we presume
it will be vast and strange
Nobody Told Me - John Lennon & Yoko Ono [from Milk & Honey]
the melody is kind of nowhere
a placeholder
Finnegans Wake, Chapter 1 (end) - James Joyce - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at Flag Ranch, Wyoming, July 19, 1988]
an chanting episode
the soundwaves are his buffetters
from ears
and to ears end
under the sacred roof tree
as shore as you're born
news from the homestead
flirtsome then fluttersome
ever
since reading her evening news
the bay for dibbling
alas
cuts off before he was quite finished
Bright Canaan - Robert Shaw Festival Singers [from Amazing Grace]
traditional American hymnody in its concert duds
Candy Perfume Girl - Madonna [from Ray of Light]
the music industry in its current incarnation
is a branch of the fashion
industry
sales are really all that matters
Track 3 [from Eisenbrey 2003]
some late baroque cello-bass duet
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
starts full of events
thins out irregularly
moves from immediate
amusements
to tiny fragments
widely separated
to
is it
over yet?
(not)
jump scares
Into The Night - Ancient Warlocks [from Ancient Warlocks]
guitar power bands
for guitar power fans
these guys live
were very loud indeed
Gradus at the Chapel, Rung 2 - Neal Kosály-Meyer - Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, July 14, 2018]
outside
the city's night sounds
inside
sonorities with complex possibilities of resolution
require time to
process completely
calculating {them)
is an activity
with a
start point in time
and an end point in time
but
are we
calculating
or doing something else?
observing a musical extension
of possible meaning
or
experiencing it
while observing
it
do we experience our observations?
can we express an observation
or only describe it?
3 Vignettes: a fountain backlit by the setting sun - Leanna Keith [from 3 Vignettes]
sneaks up on you
we want to be many flutes
I'm Gonna Run to the City of Refuge - Blind Willie Johnson [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
chest singing
lung resonance
lung drum
I Am Loved - Judy Garland [from Judy In Love]
all the glitz and glamor
of a radio soundstage orchestra decor
Hollywood to music: glamor sells
Laughing On The Outside - Aretha Franklin [from Laughing On The Outside]
one can blame a great deal
on the invention of the recording
studio
to change the space
in which a music happens
is to change the
nature of that music
Up Side - ? and the Mysterians [from The Best of ? and the Mysterians]
bright and nimble keyboard sound
theatrical stretto to finish
Yesterday's Music - Etta James [from Etta James]
all the parts of the blues
her back up singers are magnificent
dance it out now
Prove It All Night - Bruce Springsteen [from Live at The Roxy]
all these showy incantations
to soften 'em up
tease and deny and
satisfy
with long guitar solos
for the long guitar solos
fans
sings it like a threat and a demand
 |
| Maryhill Museum of Art |
more Kafka I believe
for such a journey
Break My Body - Pixies [from Surfer Rosa]
intriguing
disaffected attitude
Note to Note - Lennie Tristano [from Note to Note]
we'll let the melody make its own way
we'll take our way with style
Spit of Love - Bonnie Raitt [from Fundamental]
roasting on the song title
basted to the bone
October 9, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 656 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer [September 22, 2003]
settle into these sounds
angklung electric guitar piano
we compose
as we go
but resist composition from outside
our as we go
composing
angklung has gone guiro
piano has a supplemental zither
guiro
blows across a pipe
pipe wanders among the percussion station
furious scribbling guitar
activates angklung and xylophone and
rattle
groove monster
can be battled
with constant reinvention
percussion commuted
to the tub bass
and washboard
a low hoot
ushers us out
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| Maryhill Museum of Art |
edge of ominous
dim and sheer
Gradus at the Chapel (continued) - Neal Kosály-Meyer -Neal Kosály-Meyer [recorded live at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, December 14, 2013]
listen to a silence
without waiting for it to be broken
listen
with the silence
as a companion
the statement
that
this is a Cagean silence
implies
that
there is such a concept
that
such a concept can
be applied
as an adequate label
verification not likely
as
the container of the original concept
has passed away
and
left only words and scores
known
to be constitutionally inadequate
so
the truth of the statement
being undeterminable
does it make a difference
to our own understanding
of what
Cagean silence might be?
labels obscure experience
U.L.E.V. - Blazzed [from Blazzed]
the finest of its kind
bathed in power from the wall socket
Danvers - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [August 13, 2023]
these little arrangements
bring me joy
Vacation in Heaven - Missionary Josephine Miles & Sister Elizabeth Cooper [from Turn Me Loose White Man]
I am totally digging that chunkchunkchunk pinao player
The Keen and the Quing - Norman Monath [from Songs of the Pogo]
were quirling at quoits
early gender fluid comic nonsense
The Boar's Head Carol [from Life Treasury of Christmas Music]
takes me back
Green Chimneys - Thelonious Monk [from Underground]
the riff has holes to negotiate
we are taken apart
doodles at the
end to release the enchantment
 |
| Maryhill Museum of Art |
tribalism by malfeasance
dressed as the quotidian
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Episode 03 - Douglas Adams - BBC
if they want their kids to grow up to be economists
loves to retell the
story so far
as though it mattered
I wonder if it will be friends
with me
{NB: best joke in the whole show
downhill from there on
out}
(undecidable)
five million year old tape recording
complete with license free sound effects
have I built up any
coherent picture of things yet?
no
the atmosphere testing computer
thinks as a crowd
Songs About the Moon - Paul Simon [from Hearts and Bones]
walk on the urban street
full of stories
moon face
human
race
moon
In Session at The Tintinabulary
October 5, 2025
Meriden - Keith Eisenbrey
October 6, 2025
Banned Rehearsal 1135 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Postscripts
Drops
Music of J. K. Randall
I had the great good fortune, along with some of my friends from Bard, to spend some time with the late Professor Randall in 1983. Since then his music and writings have occupied a significant position in the virtual symposium of my senior colleagues. Greek Nickel #2 and "...such words as it were vain to close..." were recorded at my home in 2014 and 2016, respectively; the troubadour songs and Greek Nickel #1 at recitals in 2009 and 2012.
1.-13.
some old troubadour songs recollected from around 1200 at the piano and
interludes
(1977-79; 1988):
1. Aimeric de Peguilhan
2.
"snorffs & skrudds"
3. Peire Vidal
4.
"schwungvoll"
5. Peirol
6. "simple one"
7.
Folquet de Marseilla
8. "simple too"
9.
Gaucelm Faidit
10. "e-natural"
11. Peire Vidal
12. "mead"
13. Bernard de Ventadorn
14. greek nickel #1 (1979)
15. greek nickel #2 (1979)
16. "...such words as it were vain to close..." (1978)
recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream
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